How To Source & Embed A Royalty Free Image From MorgueFile
November 23, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Featured, New Media Simplified Ezine
An image is worth a thousand words, as they say. In this issue, I’ll show you how to source a royalty-free image from MorgueFile.com and embed it into your blog to showcase those “thousand words”.
Why Use Royalty-Free Images From MorgueFile
There are a large number of royalty-free stock photography websites available to choose from. Why should we use images from MorgueFile.com? Here are a few compelling reasons why:
01. Free License: MorgueFile states on their home page “Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!” This means using MorgueFile alllows you to take back control of your royalty-free image budget, instead of spending hundreds or thousands over time at other stock photography sites.
Personally, I have an account at iStockPhoto.com and really enjoy the comprehensive collection of media available. But I’ve personally experienced spending hundreds of dollars worth of credits for a single promotional video. If you can source appropriate images from MorgueFile, it’ll save you from spending alot of money in this area.
02. Commercial Use Freedom: As you can see with the image above, you’re free to remix the image and use it for commercial purposes without attribution to the original author. This freedom in their licensing gives you control to use their royalty-free images with massive freedom.
03. Help Me, Help You: MorgueFile has made it simple for you and I to “Crop & Post” an image in a quick hurry. And I LOVE saving time! Their “Crop & Post” is a very convenient and powerful method which I’ll showcase below. Once you learn how to use this, you’ll dig it too!
Concept Of Using Royalty-Free Stock Photography
According to Wikipedia, stock photography is the supply of photographs licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer.
Stock photography offers a photo buyer the ability to use an image in an unlimited number of ways for a single license fee.
“Free” in this context means “free of royalties (paying each time you use an image)”. It does not mean the image is free to use without purchasing a license or that the image is in the public domain.
But in this issue, using MorgueFile allows us to use IMAGES FOR FREE, without purchasing any license to use it. Cool huh?
FLOWCHART USING MORGUEFILE
Step 1: Go To MorgueFile.com
Step 2: Input Keyword To Search
Step 3: Filter Search
Instead of viewing multiple pages of images, I prefer to filter image results per page to 144. This allows me to view many more images in one page view.
Step 4: Click Desired Image
When you roll your mouse over the images, it’ll reveal itself in a mini pop-up. When you’ve decided, click the image you want to use.
I’ve chosen this image as this is the result of the tennis balls after I’ve “crushed it” on the court! <wink>
Step 5: (Optional) Download Image
As you see in the flowchart, you can either download the image to upload to your blog, OR use MorgueFile’s “Crop & Post” feature, which I’ll showcase next.
If you prefer to keep the image on your desktop, click the green “Download” button now.
Step 6: Click “Crop & Post”
Step 7: Crop Image To Desired Size
(1) Click and drag corner points to crop your image to your liking
(2) The width and height measurements will be revealed to the bottom left
(3) You can use the sliding scale to fine-tune your image scale
(4) If you want to lock the size of your image, check this “Lock size” checkbox
(5) When you’re ready, click the “Finished” button to complete
Step 8: Copy HTML Code
(1) This is the code to copy for your blog
(2) If you’re prefer to link to this image, copy this URL
Step 9: Add Image To Blog Post
Step 10: Smile At Your Brilliance
Crushin’ It With MorgueFile
You can use MorgueFile’s images and their “Crop and Post” feature for both your blog and html websites.
If you prefer to retain the images on your blog’s host, simple download it from MorgueFile, upload to your host and embed in your blog post.
Simple and effective, eh?
Would you use this for your blog? Appreciate your thoughts and feedback 
10 Ways To Showcase Credibility & Authority Via Your Blog
October 26, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Featured, New Media Simplified Ezine
10 actionable strategies for business owners, coaches, consultants and publishers to showcase credibility and authority in their field through their blogs. I’ll walk you through strategy, processes and resources, along with examples and case studies to show you why and how to get it done.
The Uneven Playing Field
The ease of publishing content and media on blogs has flooded the web with business blogs, and as a result, skyrocketed the number of competitors you have in your playing field.
It’s not an even playing field, but you have the advantage. Why is this?
For starters, business owners are advised to get a blog setup, but left without any clear direction as to the purpose and process of leveraging the impact of a blog when a visitor arrives.
Secondly, many business owners who have blogs showcase a boring and stale representation of themselves with no personality and compelling story to engage their viewers.
Along with their ignorance of “a better way” and a failure to do more than what’s required, your competition will continue to do what they’ve always done, and get the results they’ve always come to expect.
Unfortunately for your competitors (and good for you), they do not have this “10 Step Checklist” to help them navigate their blog to boosting their credibility and establish authority in their field. You do. Now, your playing field is a different landscape and the game has just changed for you.
Let’s get started…
10 Step Checklist
Enter the world of your customer or prospect.
Step into their “Allen-Edmonds” or “Manolo Blahniks”…
Imagine them at their MacBooks typing in a search phrase for your industry…
Imagine your blog appearing in the top 10 Google listing for their search and CLICK! Your blog appears on their browser screen.
Now what?
Tick-tock. You have 1 second to attract and engage them. If you’re lucky, 3 seconds.
Do you have the right stuff to involve them, to disengage their Back button, and to make them feel “at home” at your web destination?
Or is it Back button, baby! Game over.
As a blogging, podcasting and videoblogging consultant, I’m frequently asked by clients to overhaul or give their websites and blogs a facelift to “put their best foot forward”. In addition, I’m regularly critiquing websites and blogs at conferences and on my web TV show (http://ShermanHu.tv).
Here are my discoveries for what makes a credible and authoritative blog, packaged into a neat 10 step checklist for you. This 10 step checklist will give you a breakthrough, a leading edge over your competitors, and a chance to attract and engage your customer for longer than a flirting second.
10 Step Checklist (the first 5 are about “form”, the second 5 have to do with “function”):
01 :: Present a Professional Blog Theme & Logo Design
02 :: Showcase an Engaging Photo
03 :: Leverage Audio & Video
04 :: Reveal Accessible Navigation
05 :: Architect Contact Information Prominently
06 :: Give Value First, Self-Promotion Second
07 :: Solicit & Engage in Conversations
08 :: Share Your Engaging Story
09 :: Provide Publications & Presentations
10 :: Exhibit Testimonials & Endorsements
Now that you know the 10 steps, let’s unpack each of them.
01 :: Present a Professional Blog Theme & Logo Design
You’ve heard the common saying – “First impressions count” – and it applies even more so with your blog. Oftentimes, you get a 1 second chance to prove your credibility and authority, and sorry, no second chances.
If you have 1 chance to prove your credibility and authority, let’s make the most of it and WOW your web viewer with a professional blog design layout.
The good news is you don’t need to spend thousands on a design layout from a designer. If you’re using a Wordpress blog, all you have to do is Google for “free wordpress themes” (or search for a Wordpress theme from your blog’s Dashboard) and you’ll be served with many websites that offer design layouts (aka “themes”) that you can download, activate on your blog and immediately you have a new facelift to your blog.
Below are 4 resources of Wordpress theme sites that are popular amongst users. In fact, these services bridge on using Wordpress as “Content Management Systems” (CMS) and some offer a complete package of varying themes to choose from. Some of these themes also come packaged with Plugins (‘a la carte’ features to add to your blog to extend its’ functionality).
These fee-based Wordpress themes offer more value and features than their free counterparts. Here are some very popular fee-based themes…
01a: StudioPress
StudioPress (http://shermanlive.com/go/studiopress) (1 Theme: $60; All Themes: $200)
My personal favorite theme, and what I use at ShermanLive.com. StudioPress themes give me a professional magazine layout (vs. a bloggy layout), attractive features (ie Featured Content Gallery) and flexibility to modify creative settings via the dashboard and CSS (cascading style sheets).
Purchasing one of their professional themes gives you access to detailed theme tutorials, limited customization techniques and private forum support. Future theme updates are offered at no additional cost.
If you service clients with blog design services or want to setup multiple blogs with different themes, it makes sense to purchase the “All Themes” package.
01b: WooThemes
WooThemes (http://shermanlive.com/go/woo) (Theme Package: 1 theme purchase; Club Membership: All past themes, plus new themes over the course of your membership)
WooThemes offers some of the best-looking professional themes for the Wordpress platform. They are expanding into other CMS platforms and I predict they’ll do well in those arenas too. Their subscription packages offer a minimum of 2 new themes every month to give you an expanding repertoire of theme choices for your client needs or your own personal blog.
I appreciate how easy it is to style a theme with a long list of styles and options to get you up and running quickly. Their support includes theme documentation, tutorials, knowledgebase and strong technical support in their forum.
01c: ThemeForest
ThemeForest (http://shermanlive.com/go/themeforest) (themes range from $5 up to $40)
ThemeForest is part of the Envato Marketplace network of sites, where you can buy and sell themes and templates for popular CMS (Content Management Systems) products, including Wordpress.
The themes are priced according to their complexity and quality. You can search for themes via Category, Keyword Search, Popular Files, Collections, Featured Files or even Top Authors.
01d: Thesis
Thesis (http://shermanlive.com/go/thesis) (Personal: $87; Developer: $164)
Thesis is an extremely popular and SEO-friendly theme for your Wordpress blog. The option panels make customizing your font controls, design changes, layout combinations and other choices super simple to modify.
An attractive and well-designed blog theme will portray a professional image for you and your business, increasing your credibility and boosting your image of authority in your industry.
02 :: Showcase an Engaging Photo
(Above) Yolande Citro (YolandeCitro.com), a real estate agent reveals her photo in the sidebar of her blog.
When I visit a website or blog, more often than not, I’ll click on the “About” page to discover who the author or personality is. I’m looking for a vibe, personality, culture, image, voice….anything.
In the above image, Yolande Citro knows that prospects need to trust and “buy into” the agent first, before allowing her to represent their home. Her color photo offers a welcoming vibe to her blog, and she receives many compliments on this photo.
John Maxwell, a renowned leadership consultant and New York Times bestselling author, shares “People will buy into the Leader first before they’ll buy into the Leader’s vision“. In the same manner, I’m looking to “buy into” the author first, before I buy into the author’s blogging.
And oftentimes, an engaging photo will give me that image. You don’t have to portray a “serious” photo – just showcase your personality that connects with your audience and industry.
In addition, showcasing your engaging photo makes you ‘real’, ‘human’, and draws your audience one step closer to you. All this makes you seem more credible too.
While we’re on this topic, embedding photos and images within your blog posts is a smart way to attract and engage your readers to focus on your content. Reading (or scanning) a block of text is boring for anyone. Break it up with photos, images, and even video.
“Face it” – you have 1 second to flirt with your web audience, so engage them with your photo.
03 :: Leverage Audio & Video
With YouTube, Google Video and 50 plus other video sharing sites competing for your viewing time and pleasure, its very apparent that online video is here to stay. The video services and camcorders of today have made it very simple for you and I to record and publish office or home-made videos very quickly and inexpensively.
As you know, audio and video – when deployed effectively – can be powerful mediums to attract, engage and convert your viewers. Observe how your family and friends remember commercial jingles or succumb to late night TV sales messages. You can and should leverage media on your blog to connect with your customers.
With a video sharing account, compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) for cool and inexpensive daylight source, a curtain backdrop, decent mic, camcorder and a good “script”, you can easily craft a short yet engaging video for your blog that helps you “break the ice” with your viewing audience, and draws them one step closer to realizing your credibility and authority in your industry.
04 :: Reveal Accessible Navigation
Have you ever walked into a new mall only to be confused about the location of a store you’re looking for? I have. I’m sure you’ve experienced it too. Frustrating, isn’t it?
If you’re fortunate, you come to a Mall Directory that shows you the “You Are Here” red dot and a directory of stores categorized by type. This directory is your saving grace to getting your bearings, navigating the maze of people and hallways, and finally arriving at your destination.
In the same manner, your blog is the new mall to your visitor. They’re new to your blog and will approach with preconceived notions about where the content they’re looking for should be. Your top, side and footer navigation, along with your Search Bar is the Mall Directory – so make it easy for them to find it and locate what they want.
This is leaning towards Website Usability concepts, but I won’t bore you with it. Long story short, don’t make them think, keep it simple and give them shortcuts to your important content.
Consider a visual survey of the biggest and most popular sites on the web, eg. Amazon to see how they lay out their navigation. Or perform a visual survey of popular blogs in your industry. This will give you an idea of what your customers will have already been accustomed to seeing on other blogs.
Don’t get fancy. Remember, just because you’ve flirted with them for 3 seconds doesn’t mean they won’t leave your blog in a hurry if they’re confused about the “lay of the land”.
Keep your navigation accessible so you maintain your credibility.
05 :: Architect Contact Information Prominently
Have you ever experienced a wild goose chase hunting for a website owner’s contact information? It’s not fun, is it?
Let’s re-step into your customer’s “Allen-Edmonds” or “Manolo Blahniks”…
If you were him or her, where would you prefer to see the contact information on your blog? Good. Now make it happen.
My preference is to show contact information (telephone number, email address, mailing address, link to Support Desk, live chat button etc) on the Home page of the blog or on the Contact page – first choice would be the former. This way your customer does not have to drill down the information on another page.
Back to this example of Yolande Citro’s blog, I was responsible for the blog setup and design, and I chose to create the masthead graphic to include her telephone and fax number. Why? Because in the real estate business, speaking to a client on the phone typically returns a higher conversion than any other method.
As a result, regardless of what page a client is on, they’ll see this realtor’s contact info “above the fold” (the top portion of her site) and it makes it simple for them to call her. Plus, we’ve also added her contact numbers in the right sidebar, which also appears on every page of her blog.
Whatever you choose to do, architect your contact information prominently – either in the masthead, sidebar or footer – to make it easy for your customer to contact you, which makes you look good.
06 :: Give Value First, Self-Promotion Second
You’ve been invited to a good friend’s cocktail party. Both your date and you arrive at the party looking your very best.
After you pour yourselves a couple of cocktails, you proceed to the nearest group of guests who are engaged in conversation and laughter. Flipping open your golden business card case, you begin to introduce and pitch your services to every single person in that group. Your keen observation skills detect that between awkward glances and uncomfortable shifting, all of the guests gave a valid reason to excuse themselves.
Is this your practice at parties? If not, why do you see so much of this prevail on the web? Do you see this practice on blogs?
Generally, bloggers have an etiquette of publishing conversational entries to their blogs. Unlike corporate websites that use corporate speak, effective bloggers write with a “personal voice”, effectively bridging the gap between them and their audience.
Furthermore, smart business owners “lower the free line”, offering good value-added content and resources to their readers *first* to begin a relationship and a platform of credibility and authority, before they move towards a fee-based transaction. The latter is typically smoother in process after the reader knows, likes, trusts and respects the author after consuming their blog content. These “deposits” in the customer’s “trust account” will serve your ROI very well.
When you’re writing and publishing on Twitter, Facebook or your blog, consider it a “24/7 virtual cocktail party”. You’ve been invited. You’re dressed with somewhere to go. Now how will you establish credibility and authority in your field?
07 :: Solicit & Engage in Conversations
Let’s return to the “cocktail party” story above, and this time, you see a guest standing in a corner of the room, speaking to himself. No one’s around him, he’s just merrily speaking to himself. Odd? Probably. But not too far off from how most bloggers communicate on their blogs – a one-way conversation.
It’s a cocktail party, people! Let’s solicit dialog, engage and be engaged in conversations – a two-way street.
Likewise, on your blog, ask for feedback, comments, thoughts, opinions, perspectives – whether in line with your thinking, or controversial, that’s alright. It’s the beginning of a two-way dialog, which serves to add life and vibrancy to your blog. This two-way dialog will spark interesting conversations and offer others reading your blog an insight into your familiarity and subject-matter-expertise on your topic, lending to your credibility and authority status in your field.
08 :: Share Your Engaging Story
All the greatest teachers from the past to present deliver important lessons or wisdom through the power of engaging story. In this case, “your story”.
Do you know the wonderful nature of “your story”? You can’t mess it up, its yours. You know it best and you can share your story with great passion and detail.
Your story – be it business or personal – will attract and engage your blog readers to you. Oftentimes, your story will effectively “put some skin” around your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), the key element that makes you stand apart from the rest of your competition.
Take for example a chocolate blog I recently reviewed. Let’s name the blog author: Barbara Cocoa. She loves chocolate – milk chocolate, dark chocolate, any kind of chocolate is fair game.
When she takes her son traveling to different parts of the world, they’ll scour the streets and find hole-in-the-wall shops that sell chocolate that give you that “I’ve died and gone to heaven” feeling.
Her chocolate blog is a gorgeous romantic red and white, well-designed and very “delicious”. The usual critique reveals all the above points in this 10-step checklist that Barbara should add to her blog.
In the middle of the critique, she reveals her passion for chocolate and her travel habits. Voila! That’s it. I clung on to her story and “milked” it for all its worth. She needed to share it, on her blog, in text, and if possible, on video.
This is a golden credibility & authority building exercise and will draw your visitors closer to you, leading to increased transactions and profits.
Find your heart. Find your passion. Find your story.
09 :: Provide Publications & Presentations
Whether you are a print or digital media publisher, leverage it to your credibility and authority-building benefit.
Do you have reports, white papers, audio MP3s, videos, radio interviews, newspaper clippings and other sources of content you’ve created and published?
If you DO NOT, begin creating it.
If you DO, offer them on your blog as value-added intellectual property, which can be exchanged for your readers’ contact information (typically their name and email address).
These publications and presentations – online or offline – provide you with efficient sources to help you build credibility and authority in your field.
10 :: Exhibit Testimonials & Endorsements
In showcasing credibility and authority on the Web, it’s not what you say about yourself that’s important, it’s what others say about you that counts. Consider it an unbiased review of your credibility or offerings.
You can shout from the mountain tops that you’re the best “_fill in the blank_ professional”, but it doesn’t hold the same powerful impact as when you have a series of honest, relatable “customer evidence”, testimonials and endorsements from customers, industry colleagues and professionals to back up your claims.
If you have these testimonials and endorsements to exhibit, don’t be shy. Publish them on your blog for display. They’ll add to the proof that you are a credible source and an authority in your field.
Showcase Your Credibility & Authority Today
When you present a professional blog theme and logo design, along with your engaging photo, audio and videos, it’ll WOW your customers.
Creating your navigation to be accessible so that they can find your important content, along with your contact information when they need it, is critical.
When you’re giving value first before self-promotion, and engaging in conversations and your story, you’ll be amazed at how much reciprocity returns to you in more ways than one.
Lastly, when you offer value-added publications and presentations, along with testimonials and endorsements, you’re holding the golden ticket to showcasing your credibility and authority through your blog.
Are there any of the above 10 tips that you will implement? Are there other credibility factors that you recommend? I’d love to get your thoughts and feedback on this topic, care to share?
8 Critical Wordpress Security Resources (NMS #003)
September 15, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Featured, New Media Simplified Ezine
In today’s issue, an upgrade warning to all who host their own Wordpress blogs. How to upgrade your blog in a few steps. Easily change your admin username. Back up your blog to your Amazon S3 account. Back up your blog to your host. A scanner to detect how vulnerable your blog is to an attack. And plugins to secure and lock down your Wordpress blog to brute force attacks.
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Business manager Eric Frans shares…
“…we have seen our daily unique hits increase literally a hundred fold and online product purchase to visit ratios are higher than ever before.
I know that if it is up to me, I will not even look to hire anyone else over Sherman as I have not met his equal in savvy and proficiency..”
Read Eric and other’s testimonials here:
http://shermanlive.com/go/revoblog
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8 Critical Wordpress Security Resources
1. Still Using An Older Wordpress Version?
It’s not just you, alot of others are still running older versions of Wordpress (WP). Recently, many have reported seeing weird stuff in their URLs, all of them running older versions of WP.
Save yourself hours of wasted time and agony by upgrading to the latest version of WP. If you don’t deploy a security update, you’re vulnerable to get hacked, just a matter of when.
Here’s more details to the hack warning at Wordpress:
http://shermanlive.com/go/hackwarning
2. Upgrade Your WP Blog Automatically OR Manually
Automatic or manual upgrade – your choice. But whichever option you choose, backup your database first. (Below, I share a few links to do this)
Personally, I prefer the control of a manual upgrade. Quite simple, really. 3 steps – replace the files, execute the upgrade, and finally… do the happy dance!
More details to upgrading, either way:
http://shermanlive.com/go/upgradewp
3. How To Easily Change Your Admin Username In WP
Why change your admin username? Security. Be default, WP sets up your login name as “admin”. Hackers know this, and it makes their job easy.
But changing it manually by editing your WP database is cruel and unusual punishment! Trust me, I’ve been there, done that, and got the lousy t-shirt.
Enter the “Change Admin Username” plugin…ta-da! Activate it and it adds a new menu item to your Dashboard’s “Users” menu. Input new username, click save, and it’ll do its magic to your database.
http://shermanlive.com/go/wpadminchange
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4. Backup Your WP Blog To Your Amazon S3 account
If you have an Amazon S3 account, you know how easy and affordable it is to store data and resources on it.
(If you want more details on Amazon S3, visit: http://shermanlive.com/go/amazons3)
With the “WP S3 Backups” plugin, you can easily and automatically backup important parts of your WP blog to your account.
http://shermanlive.com/go/wps3backup
5. Schedule WP Blog Backups To Your Host Server
If you’d rather backup your WP blog to your host account, instead of Amazon S3, this “DBC Backup” plugin will make easy work of this process for you.
You can select when and where your backup will be generated, including 3 different compression formats.
http://shermanlive.com/go/dbcbackup
6. Scan Your WP Blog For Attack Vulnerabilities
“WP Scanner” is a no-cost online resource to measure your blog security levels.
Their “Activator Plugin” verifies you own your blog, giving them permission to test it.
Plugin & Details:
http://shermanlive.com/go/securewp
8. Lockdown Protection From Brute Force Attacks
Wordpress blogs are vulnerable to brute force attacks as there are no limits to how many times a user can use invalid login passwords before using the correct one.
This plugin, “User Locker”, will close this hole with a maximum number of invalid login attempts. Once this number is exceeded, the account is locked.
More details on how User Locker works here:
http://shermanlive.com/go/userlocker
-
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That’s it for this issue, my friends. Thank you for reading, and you can share your feedback and comments below or via Twitter.
If you liked this first issue, why not forward it to your friends, colleagues, family and anyone else that you think might enjoy it. Thank you for your continued support.
Until the next issue, here’s wishing you much health, happiness, prosperity – and security,
Sherman Hu
7 Brilliant Blogging Resources That Rock! (NMS #002)
September 2, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Featured, New Media Simplified Ezine
In today’s issue, a Firefox addon to help with blog seo. Evergreen strategy to promote blogs. Blog with an iPhone app. 3 tips to create better blog content. Get in tune with your readers needs. 5 ways to make your writing timeless. Finally, 3 ways to figure out how frequent you should publish on your blog.
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Frustrated setting up your blog?
Counting how much time you’ve “invested” (*cough*..wasted..) messing with databases, themes, widgets, and CSS?
Time to hand it over to a pro, yet?
For the next 48 hours, get a pro blog built by a pro for ONLY $500. Valid for the next 5 fortunate clients:
Click: http://shermanlive.com/go/revoblog
Business manager Eric Frans shares…
“…we have seen our daily unique hits increase literally a hundred fold and online product purchase to visit ratios are higher than ever before.
I know that if it is up to me, I will not even look to hire anyone else over Sherman as I have not met his equal in savvy and proficiency..”
Read Eric and other’s testimonials here:
http://shermanlive.com/go/revoblog
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7 Brilliant Blogging Resources That Rock!
1. Blog Post Optimization with SEO Blogger
The folks at Wordtracker (keyword research company) have cooked up a Firefox add-on called ‘SEO Blogger’ in their labs, to supply you with keywords and related phrases (along with recent search volume) in your sidebar, so you can optimize your blog posts while writing it. I’ve tried it and it rocks!
http://shermanlive.com/go/seoblogger
2. An Evergreen Strategy To Promoting Your Blog
Most bloggers have the mindset that blogging is 97% writing and 3% promotion. While writing is important, brilliantly crafted blog posts with effective promotion that gets it spread around the web is way more effective. Discover one evergreen strategy to promoting your blog that will pay super dividends for your efforts.
http://shermanlive.com/go/promovsproduction
3. iPhone Users Blog Easily With PicPosterous App
The popular minimalist blogging service, Posterous, launched its own iPhone app called PicPosterous. Until now, you’d have to email pics to upload your content to your Posterous account. With the new app, you can take photos or video directly from within the app, or choose from your iPhone library. You can easily add your media to an album without starting a new blog post.
http://shermanlive.com/go/picposterous
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4. 3 Tips To Creating Better Blog Content
Do you want a wider audience, more subscribers, better conversion to paying customers, fanatically loyal readers, and enviable word of mouth? Apply these 3 tips to make your reader’s life better, entice them to eat up your blog posts right away, and give them a pleasurable experience from reading your blog.
http://shermanlive.com/go/3tipscookiecontent
5. How To Get In Tune With Your Readers Needs And Produce Compelling Content
These 6 ways to stay in tune with your readers’ needs will help you create compelling content, over and over again. In addition, the 3 tips and exercise offered will help you easily produce compelling blog content for years to come.
http://shermanlive.com/go/6waysreadersneeds
6. 5 Ways To Make Your Writing Timeless
When you write articles for your blog, is it your intention to make them timeless or “here today, gone tomorrow”? The pain of irrelevant content is losing readers, traffic and credibility as a writer. To create timeless posts, simply follow these 5 guidelines when writing.
http://shermanlive.com/go/5timelesswritingtips
7. 3 Ways To Determine How often To Post To Your Blog
Ever wonder how frequent you should post to your blog? This is a common struggle for most bloggers, and this article shares 3 ways to determine the answer to this question. Once you decide how frequent you are going to blog, you can schedule your routine to fit your plan.
http://shermanlive.com/go/3postfrequencytips
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That’s it for this issue, my friends. Thank you for reading, and you can share your feedback and comments below or via Twitter.
If you liked this first issue, why not forward it to your friends, colleagues, family and anyone else that you think might enjoy it. Thank you for your continued support.
Until the next issue, here’s wishing you much health, wealth, prosperity – and productivity,
Sherman Hu
Wendy Y Bailey Interviews Sherman Hu on Wordpress Blogging for Business
January 15, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Interviews, Video
Wendy Y Bailey of DIY Tech Talk is a colleague and social media buddy on Twitter. She interviewed me about the use of Wordpress for business, and expanded on topics ranging from purpose of a blog for business use, plugins – along with my favorite plugins, themes – along with which 3 I recommend, integration with social media, and how to rank well and be visible on Google with blogs.
In this conversation, I shared edu-taining strategies using video to be visible, outrank your competition, and build your brand and expertise – tune in to this part of the conversation!
As always, I appreciate your feedback and comments on your takeaways, and your thoughts on this video’s content. Cheers!
Show Notes
01:22 AngelaBaden : Great, great show!
01:22 shermanlive-1 : Thanks peeps!
01:22 shermanlive-1 : thanks Angela!
01:24 AngelaBaden : That really helped, I was feeling rather stymied by what wasn’t going on
01:24 shermanlive : good! rock and roll now!
01:26 AngelaBaden : Will do! Will tweet you and andy
01:55 shermanlive : let me un-password my show peeps – sorry
01:56 shermanlive : ok, go ahead and refresh the page – there shouldn’t be a password requirement now
01:56 shermanlive : !moderateon
01:56 shermanlive : !topic DIY Tech Talk: WordPress with Sherman Hu – Interview Host: Wendy Y Bailey
03:00 lisamariemary : Hi Sherman! 
03:02 shermanlive : HEY HEY LISA MARIE!!!
03:02 shermanlive : let your peeps know we’re gonna party about … now
03:03 lisamariemary : Will do!
03:03 lisamariemary : Yes
03:03 DaveMarshall : good here
03:03 lisamariemary : Volume just right to me
03:09 shermanlive : wazzup peeps!
03:10 lisamariemary : Hey Tony! Man, I need to visit your forum!
03:11 WendyYBailey : snipurl.com/diy-wp-wendyy
03:11 WendyYBailey : that’s to join the webinar!!
03:12 TonyBlake : Yes you do Lisa… LOL!
03:13 TonyBlake : SHOUT!
03:14 lisamariemary : Eeks – I know, I’ve neglected you 
03:15 lisamariemary : eeks, sound gone
03:15 lisamariemary : what happened to the audio? is it just me?
03:16 LifeCoachMary : I love the pictures of food!! Yummo.
03:16 shermanlive : do u hear us now?
03:16 AndreaC : I hear fine
03:16 shermanlive : HEY LIFECOACHMARY!!!
03:16 lisamariemary : No, maybe I need to log in and out…hmm…
03:16 LifeCoachMary : sound isn’t synced to the phone…
03:16 shermanlive : refresh?
03:17 lisamariemary : All better! Ahh!
03:17 LifeCoachMary : do you know what the link is for Wendyy’s snip.url?
03:17 shermanlive : yes there’s a delay
03:17 shermanlive : snipurl.com/diy-wp-wendyy
03:17 AndreaC : No better to make a choice with the audio, either or
03:18 lisamariemary : Audio’s all fixed for me
03:18 AndreaC : lol
03:18 AndreaC : whats “for” dinner?
03:21 LifeCoachMary : Thanks…all this technology is very cool.
03:22 WendyYBailey : I love SEO, especially the All In One SEO Plugin for WordPress!
03:23 WendyYBailey : What questions do you have about SEO and WordPress?
03:24 AndreaC : Besides using the SEO plugin what else do you recommend doing?
03:26 WendyYBailey : What’s a trackback?
03:26 LisaVanAllen : Thanks for asking that WendyY
03:27 lisamariemary : LOL!!!
03:27 LisaVanAllen : I was getting scared
03:27 WendyYBailey : LOL
03:29 AndreaC : would you only do one or the other – comment or trackback?
03:34 LisaVanAllen : When my prospects google “LisaVanAllen” these days, they find pg 1 filled with info on a woman involved in a notorious lawsuit (NOT ME). Any way to knock her off and regain page 1??
03:36 LisaVanAllen : Is that QAlias?
03:36 shermanlive : www.qalias.com/
03:37 WendyYBailey : qalias.com/af/wb01
03:37 LisaVanAllen : Got any contacts for me??
03:37 shermanlive : i’ll send U “TONY”
03:37 lisamariemary : LOL!
03:37 LisaVanAllen : heehee
03:38 lisamariemary : lol
03:38 LisaVanAllen : It was NASTY!
03:38 lisamariemary : Squidoo!
03:39 LisaVanAllen : Not yet… will now!!
03:39 LisaVanAllen : Just getting started with video
03:39 lisamariemary : And use blogspot and youtube, too – they seem to get in the SERPS fairly quickly
03:39 LisaVanAllen : How FUN!!!!
03:39 AndreaC : brilliant!!
03:40 lisamariemary : Oooh, yeah!!! That’d be cool!
03:40 WendyYBailey : You got the right one, baby!!
03:40 lisamariemary : Awesome!
03:40 shermanlive : TubeMogul.com
03:40 LisaVanAllen : That is a fabulous idea!!
03:40 lisamariemary : I love it! And it’d make a cute Squidoo lens!
03:41 LisaVanAllen : THANK YOU!!!
03:41 LisaVanAllen : Yup with R Kelly
03:41 LisaVanAllen : NOT ME!
03:41 LisaVanAllen : Yes… very white!
03:41 lisamariemary : lol
03:41 lisamariemary : lmao!!!
03:42 AndreaC : So when I search Lisa Van Allen next month, hope to see this video
03:42 lisamariemary : No problems with new version? I’m scared to upgrade
03:43 TonyBlake : No probs so far Lisa… upgrade was easy and no probs
03:44 lisamariemary : Groovy!
03:44 TonyBlake : I’ve upgraded all my blogs to 2.7 and have yet to have a prob — and I have like 35 blogs
03:44 lisamariemary : OMG, Tony – wow!
03:44 LisaVanAllen : 35?!?!?!? Where do you find the time?
03:44 WendyYBailey : WOOHOO!
03:45 lisamariemary : Tony is super groovy!
03:45 LisaVanAllen : Tony – can we be friends?
03:45 AndreaC : www.ablakeforum.com
03:45 TonyBlake :
03:45 TonyBlake : @tonyblakelive
03:46 WendyYBailey : What plug-ins do you suggest?
03:47 TonyBlake : I love sharethis… makes life so easy
03:47 WendyYBailey : plug-ins: sharethis
03:47 WendyYBailey : plug-ins: twittertools
03:49 WendyYBailey : post a digest of your tweets on your blog
03:49 WendyYBailey : kewlio!
03:49 LisaVanAllen : Loving this!
03:49 WendyYBailey : Me too, Lisa!
03:49 SelfMadeCelo : Another great plugin is “Lifestream” reads RSS feeds from a ton of different social sites (Digg, FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, etc) and posts it on one page
03:49 LifeCoachMary : Where do we find that twitter to blog tool? Very cool!
03:49 shermanlive : “Share This”
03:49 WendyYBailey : plug-ins: podpress
03:50 shermanlive : “Twitter Tools
03:50 TonyBlake : lifestream is another cool plugin — it posts your twitter or a twitter digest directly to your blog as a post
03:50 shermanlive : “Podpress” MightySeek.com
03:50 SelfMadeCelo : @Tony, great minds think alike eh? lol
03:51 TonyBlake : LOL!… didn’t see your comment
03:51 shermanlive : WishlistPlugin.com
03:51 SelfMadeCelo : I’m actually setting up Lifestream right now =)
03:55 WendyYBailey : snipurl.com/diy-wp-wendyy
03:55 LifeCoachMary : Are plugins easy to install, or is it best to delegate to VA?
03:56 LisaVanAllen : Give me a call Wendy!
03:57 LisaVanAllen : Answer Mary’s question about whether we should hire a VA for our plugins??
03:57 WendyYBailey : Plug-ins are easy but do delegate to a VA so you can focus on doing what you truly love — coaching!
03:58 LifeCoachMary : Thank you!! Now I know how my peeps feel not understanding all this language. Thanks for doing this!
03:58 WendyYBailey : You’re quite welcome!
04:02 WendyYBailey : tutorialu.com
04:03 WendyYBailey : wordpresstutorials.com
04:03 WendyYBailey : diytechtalk.com
04:03 WendyYBailey : GENIUS!!
04:04 WendyYBailey : You might also have a web dev/project manager to handle that stuff too.
04:04 LifeCoachMary : You make it sound not so scary…but I’ll probably still delegate.
04:05 shermanlive : lol – good for you!
04:05 LifeCoachMary : If we’re a newbie with plugins, what’s the one or two we should add first?
04:05 WendyYBailey : elance.com
04:05 shermanlive : odesk.com
04:05 WendyYBailey : guru.com
04:05 WendyYBailey : odefk.com
04:05 WendyYBailey : lol odesk.com
04:06 WendyYBailey : Do you know joselin mane?
04:06 LisaVanAllen : Joselin Mane is awesome!
04:06 LisaVanAllen : So, so helpful!
04:07 WendyYBailey : groupcoachingmastery.com is a Semiologic pro/WP blog.
04:09 WendyYBailey : That’s way kewl!
RSS Technology Training: Syndication Concepts for Business
January 8, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Social Media
You may be familiar with blogging and its benefits. But are you familiar with the power of RSS mashup technology as a marketing tool for your online start-up or established online businesses? Would you want to discover a technology that is so understated but so powerful that even Google involves it in one of their company acquisitions?
This blog entry is addresssed to established web marketers, entrepreneurs, or virtual start-ups. I’ll be sharing with you a document to create a greater awareness of the advantages of leveraging innovative RSS technologies for higher visibility on the Internet and the traffic that results from such visibility.
As an evangelist and trainer for blogging and other social media, I’m very familiar with the strengths of blogging and RSS. But when my friend and colleague, David Ridge speaks about RSS Mashup Technology (that gives him speedy but stable search results and revenue from Google), I drop everything and listen intently.
David Ridge is the founder and CEO of Fwicki.com, an RSS mashup platform and one of the most powerful and innovative RSS applications on the internet today. If you have no clue about Fwicki, let me give you some context to the rare air around Fwicki.
Are you familiar with Feedburner? Yes, the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds. And the largest feed and blog advertising network, with members like Wall Street Journal Online, Wired News, Ziff Davis, and more. Yes, that Feedburner that Google owns.
Located within the FeedBurner application is a list of integrated components from carefully selected, related RSS applications and services. The services offered within the FeedBurner user area are a “who’s who” of the top 25 RSS applications in the world such as Google Reader, My Yahoo!, Newsgator, and Pageflakes. Fwicki is one of these 25 applications. Google (Feedburner) digs Fwicki, do you?
I pray you’ll allocate mind-space to Fwicki. David Ridge is a mover and shaker (but a very private guy), and he’s granted me exclusive permission to share a RSS Training document with you that will make a difference to your business if you take advantage of it. And more importantly to me, David’s shown strength of character and integrity over the years that I’ve known him, so I trust him.
This document, “RSS Technology Training: Syndication Concepts for Business“, will help you understand the role of RSS technology and advanced syndication concepts for entrepreneurs and online businesses.
Here’s the table of contents in this document:
1. RSS Associates
2. Introduction
3. The Advantages of RSS
4. RSS & Business – The Perfect Merger
5. Planning The Syndicated Data Stream
6. Leveraging RSS For Placement In The SERPs
7. Innovative RSS Applications
8. Applying Mashup Application Technologies
9. Viral Syndication Concepts
10. Social Syndication Concepts
11. Custom, Dynamic, Social Data Portals
12. The Advantages of Rich Media Feeds
13. Monetizing The Data Stream
14. Adequate Support, Coaching and Training
David gave me express permission to share this document with my audience – you – to shed light on the power of RSS for business.
Here’s your next steps:
Step 01. Download and read “RSS Technology Training: Syndication Concepts for Business”
Step 02. Holla at David Ridge at http://www.fwicki.net/support . Give him thanks & props for this free document
Step 03. Use http://www.fwicki.net/support to ask him questions about what you read, or how his mashup technology will make a difference to your online business and web marketing. David’s also available for private RSS consulting to those who qualify. “Only” my “posse” has been offered the opportunity to engage his time for consulting, so let him know Sherman sent you, ok?
Will Newman, AWAI Interviews Sherman Hu
December 4, 2008 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Interviews, Podcasting, Social Media, Video
Will Newman, Managing Editor of “Copywriting Insider” (AWAI) interviewed me this morning. Frankly, this ranks as one of my all time favorite interview sessions. I believe alot had to do with how much of a pro Will is with his pre-interview research. He had invested hours of research into my previous blog entries, podcasts and videos before conducting his interview with intelligent questions that inspired lengthy, in-depth answers from me. Almost felt like an “Inside The Actors Studio” session
HIs audience are copywriting students, novice professional writers and folks who are generally tech-unsavvy. The questions Will asked of me really opened up answers targeting mindset and practices with respects to blogging, podcasting, video and social media / networking.
I’m confident you’ll receive tremendous value from this interview. It would really thrill me to receive your feedback, thoughts and comments on this interview and your takeaways that you’ll take action on.
(sidenote: To prevent audio feedback with Will, this interview seems 1-sided with me talking. As much as I could, I rephrased Will’s question/s before my answers. Just a heads up.)
Nancy Marmolejo Reveals Twitter 101
May 19, 2008 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Video
Nancy Marmolejo, of VivaVisibility.com and Twitter buddy “NancyMarmolejo” shares with her audience about Twitter, what it is and how to learn the ropes by modeling influencers who use it effectively. Thanks Nancy, U ROCK!
Check it, and appreciate your feedback.
Ensure Wordpress Folders and Files Are Uploaded To Host Account
May 19, 2008 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Video
Question from a WordpressTutorials.com Member: How do I ensure that all my folders and files are on the server after I upload it? What do I do if not all of them are uploaded?
This short video shows you how.
Sidebar: This is an experiment in creating, recording, saving and embedding video from Ustream.tv into my blog. If this works well, it cuts out a few steps and saves time As always, I appreciate your feedback and comments.
How To Activate a New Wordpress Blog Theme
May 19, 2008 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Blogging, Video
Question from a WordpressTutorials.com Member: How do you activate a new Wordpress blog theme after you upload the theme folder to your host account?
Here’s a short video that explains how.
Sidebar: This is an experiment in creating, recording, saving and embedding video from Ustream.tv into my blog. If this works well, it cuts out a few steps and saves time
As always, I appreciate your feedback and comments.
